You Don't Need To Lose Weight Before Lipo

By Hiba Bittar, MS, COO

Patients frequently ask if it is better to lose weight before having liposuction. The answer to this question is directly linked to whether or not a patient is an appropriate candidate for liposuction. In the past, patients who did not fall within 10-15% of their ideal body weight were turned away from the procedure and instructed to lose the weight first. This is no longer the case when curves are back in style and being a few pounds away from your ideal body weight is in. Liposculpture, the newest trend in liposuction, allows for the coupling of liposuction with lipotransfer.
You are a candidate for liposculpture if you have pockets of excess fat in particular areas, even if you do not fall within 10-15% of your ideal weight. Keep in mind that liposuction is not a substitute for weight reduction; it is a method of removing localized fat. Liposuction is a technique to remove unwanted fat deposits from specific areas of the body including the chin, neck and cheeks, the upper arms and above the breasts, the abdomen, buttocks, hips and thighs and the knees, calves and ankles. It essentially eliminates the bulges and brings the areas that are “liposuctioned” into a balance with the untreated surrounding areas. Lipotransfer on the other hand is a technique that allows your surgeon to enhance areas that need enhancement by injecting the liposuctioned fat into fat deficient areas. With lipo-sculpture, you may want to lose the weight at some point yet it does not matter whether you do it before or after the surgery. You should be physically healthy and psychologically stable and have firm elastic skin which will result in a better final contour. Since lipotransfer in simple terms means taking the fat from areas you don't need it to be in and delivering it to where you do (your face or your buttocks), you don't need to be your ideal weight to be a candidate for lipo-scultupre. Lipo-transfer is a way to enhance areas that need enhancement, combining it with liposuction is true lipo-sculpture. Lipo-sculpture is completing liposuction, which is essentially a sculpture procedure at a patient's ideal body weight.
In the hands of a plastic surgeon with artistic skills and adequately trained in body contouring, your trouble areas will not only disappear, they can be useful in adding to your appeal with an improvement in contour that will persist for some time even if you lose or gain a few pounds later. Actually patients who gain a few pounds (emphasis on few) will have a persistent improvement in the contouring effect of the procedure because the new pounds will end up getting evenly distributed in your body instead of going back to the old bulges.
A board certified plastic surgeon performing liposculpture can turn patients who are more than10-15% of their ideal body weight into appropriate candidates for liposculpture. Although liposculpture can enhance your appearance and your self-confidence regardless of your weight, it will not necessarily change your looks to match your ideal, or cause other people to treat you differently. Before you decide to have surgery, think carefully about your expectations and discuss them with your surgeon.
Look at today's celebrity bodies, and you'll notice that Paris Hilton's model thin body can no longer compete with Kim Kardashian's curves. With liposculpture, your physician can shift those pounds to where they can enhance instead of detract from your shape. The concept is simple, skinny is out and curves are in. Coupling liposuction with lipotransfer is liposculpture. A new way you can look good this summer no matter how much you weigh.
2010 is all about shape.